Thursday, 28 February 2013

What did I use for this tag? Three stamps (all brand new) , seven ink pads and a gold pen! The stamps are a train stamp from Artistic Outpost 'Steampunk' sheet; Paper Artsy inkblots and a Hampton Art numbers stamp.
I'd like to enter this for :Tuesday Alchemy Travel with a rainbowCraftroom Challenge Something for a man Use it Tuesday Uninked Stamp - with gold ( stamps are new but I'm using up my ink pads and Krylon pen)Shopping Our Stash Tag It Addicted to Stamps and More Addicted to stamps

Hi everyone.
Firstly, can I say hello to my followers...I'm so flattered that you've been kind enough to follow my blog and I love your visits and comments.

This card is for CD Sunday Hugs and Wishes challenge. The bears and sentiment are from the CD Forever Friends Black and Gold. The papers are Craftwork Cards and came free with a magazine ages ago. The 'star' was from a pack of two that my little boy picked out at Stamperama , so it's one for me, one for him. Wonder what he'll do with his?

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

I usually think of vintage images as being soft and muted - and there are many of those images available from the Inkspirational Challenge sponsors this month , Eclectic Anthology. This one though (also from Eclectic Anthology), is a bit more kitsch and brightly coloured. I know sometimes they used to colour in photos after developing them. I wanted to play up the colours and using the sketch gave me a great framework to do this.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

I originally made this tag for the Dynamic Duos Challenge 'Island Indigo and Pool Party' but I'm a little bit worried about whether it fits the brief . It looks like I've used more than two colours but I'v used a turquoise Promaker on the flourish/stem andStampin Up Pool Party ink on the flower (pale on white) and on the tag (manila tag, which has made the ink look more green). Apart from that I've used white ink for the text and a stronger teal-coloured ribbon. The stamps are by Stampin Up (flower) and Hampton (text).

Sunday, 24 February 2013

I went to the Stamperama show in Stevenage today and for the first time took my 6-year-old son. He was incredibly good for the first two hours! He was happy to watch a very inspiring demo by Lin at Paperartsy. After a bit of shopping (including a Kanban Spiderman sheet) we went to watch Barbara Gray of Clarity stamps. Again, he loved the demo and Barbara kindly gave him the card she made AND allowed me to photograph them with it.

After a bit more shopping ( stamps, dies, gems , splodgeaway mat) it all became too much for a little boy and when he started to fling himself on the ground, I knew it was time to go.....

Saturday, 23 February 2013

As you can see, I kept many of the original elements - the 'clean and simple' look, the apple and the heart (although placed separately) and the position of the sentiment. This sentiment was custom-created by Mynette Kitchen , owner of the Inkspirational Challenge, as a prize when I was featured on another of her challenge blogs (Technique Time Tuesday).

Please come over and join us at Inkspirational Challenges and take part in the challenge.

It's my grandson's birthday next weekend. I recently bought him some bedding with sharks on it, so I wanted to do a card on the same theme.

I found an image of a shark on a website of children's colouring-in pages.I coloured it in and paper- pieced it. All the papers are leftovers from Cosmo Cricket 'Salt Air' and the number eight is a sticker that I coloured to match (if you can call grey a colour!) . I stuck the shark on using Papermania springs - they don't seem very flexible so I'm not sure how I'd get it into an envelope - good job I'll see him on the day and don't need to send it through the post!

Friday, 22 February 2013

Last night, that was my Trivial Pursuit answer to the question 'In the video for which song did Lionel Richie play a blind sculptor?' And it won me the match!!!

In this card (which I may use to taunt my bad loser partner), I used a phone image from Docrafts Digital Designer 'Portobello Road' CD. I recoloured it in raspberry pink. The text background was on the same CD and I recoloured that, put it behind the phone, printed and cut it all out. The other elements are all die-cut : banners (Crafty Sentiments), arrow (Cuttlebug) and letters (Papermania).

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

This card is for my son's grandad who is a football fan. I used 3 elelments from Docraft Digital Designer Tulip and Friends CD. The butterflies aren't designed to go with the dog but I liked them as I like to add a bit of prettiness to men's cards!

I cut out an extra copy of the football, one sock, one underpants and one butterfly and layered them on with 3d foam to add dimension. I added glitter to the butterflies and a layer of Crystal Lacquer to the football to make it shiny.

For my background in this card I went back to an old favourite -Marvy Metallic Markers and water on glossy card. I used red, green and gold markers for this piece, and although the gold dominates, it has a variegated effectg that I hope can be seen in the photo.

I stamped with an Indigo Blu text stamp, then the bird stamp - it's a UM and I have no idea what make. I used a Docrafts Triboss folder , sanded and added 3 gems.

I'm excited to tell you that I've joined the design team for Pinspirational Challenges. Here's how it works - every week Pinspirational post a picture, and all you do is use it as inspiration for your project. There are two sponsors every week, so a good chance of winning a prize. In addition, the DT get to make a project using images from the sponsors.

Here's this week's Pinspirational picture:

I've used an image called 'Daydreaming' from the sponsors, Freshly Brewed.

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I was inspired by the blue hair and nails in the Pinspirational picture and it reminded me of the term'feeling blue',so I created the text in the thought bubble to match.

Sunday, 17 February 2013

One of my favourite things about spring is seeing the blossom on the trees , so I set off to search my CDs for a blossom image. I found this one in My Craft Studio 'Quintessential Country Garden', and went for the black and white digi-stamp version in the NSR section. Then I created the sentiment using the Add Text button. After printing, I coloured in the blossom using Promarkers.

I made the background paper by grabbing a 'colour' from the same Cd and covering it with multiple blossom images.

Now I look at my finished card , I realise it isn't what most people would consider to be a 'spring' card (including me!) No green, for example! Never mind: spring hasn't quite made it to my area yet,so I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to perfect my spring-y card look.

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

These giraffes are digi stamps from D2D. I had printed them out, large, a while back and then done nothing with them. But when I saw the Pinspirational Challenges picture, I decided to dig them out and see what I could do with them.

First, I coloured them entirely with distress ink. Then I coloured in their patches, tongues, ears etc with Promarkers. The next idea came from the City Crafter challenge 'You felt it'. I die-cut a felt heart and sewed round the edge. I deliberately gave my stitching a naive, childlike effect - no truly, your honour, I can sew better than that.....

Here's my DT project for Inkspirational Challenges' Photo Inspiration. (See picture below) . We are sponsored this month by Ecletic Anthology . They have lots of great freebies on their website but I couldn't resist buying their set of '500 antique and vintage images of actresses and dancers.'.

For this card I was inspired by the roses in the Inkspirational photo. I chose this photo of an actress with roses in her hair and digitally layered it with a free frame from the Ecletic Anthology website. Then I printed and cut it out, layered it onto cardstock and added roses, pearls, ribbon and a hat pin. (I don't know why the ribbon looks wonky on here, it doesn't in real life! )

Sunday, 10 February 2013

She told me that her favourite card that I ever made her was one I made with a WS Designs screen card template. That card was in white and green, so this time I cut the screen from red card and die-cut heart apertures.

I was inspired by the 'Asian' challenge at Artful Times and decided to give it an Oriental theme.

I used an Oriental woman image from Debbi Moore (although I don't feel these women look very Oriental - more like Europeans with kohl and kimonos - very pretty though). Also on the view above, I used Papermania Oriental stickers, Debbi Moore cherry blossom stamp, Marianne die bird on branch and Sizzix architectural corner.

In this view you can see Oyster Stamps Chinese (?) script stamp, Cheery Lynne Fancil Flourish die and PSX bamboo stamp. The back panel will be for my message.

This week's challenge at CD Sunday is On Your Bike. I used the Docrafts Digital Designer Tulip and Friends CD.

I wanted to get a layered effect with scenery, the village and Tulip on her bike at the front. Then I discovered there was no plain scenery without characters on the CD, so I digitally punched part of a topper and enlarged it to make the furthest back panel.

I custom- made a stepper card (basically I kept folding and sticking bits until it did what I wanted ) and sponged it with Bundled Sage distress inks. Then I stuck on all the bits!

Saturday, 9 February 2013

Valentine's cards are such fun to make that I've already made several this year , but this is the one I'm actually going to give to my partner. Why? It's not too fussy and it's very clear what it's supposed to be, using traditional colours and motifs. My man is no Tim Holtz!!!

This lovely image is from Jellypark - this is a new , paid-for image but they also do great freebies if you join their club. I used Stampin Up Outlined Occasions set to stamp 'Be Mine' on the envelope and 'love' and I coloured the hearts and sentiment with gold pen. I gave the little girl ginger hair, just like mine.

For my DT project I made a notebook made from tags. I cut the tags from kraft cardstock by Papermania. It's from a pack which has some plain, some lined, some graph paper etc. The flower ( or is it a grass?Well, the natural-looking item!) is by Artemio and I stamped it in two colours of distress ink. The 'things to do' stamp was free with a magazine.

I tied it together with twine, so I can add more pages when I have more 'things to do'!

Please come over and join us at Inkspirational and show us what you do with kraft, semi-navy and plum.

Thursday, 7 February 2013

CD Sunday's challenge this week is 'Showtime'. I chose this image from My Craft Studio Simply Silhouettes CD. The pastel-ly patterned paper was from the CD as well. With Valentine's Day coming up, I was motivated to add some die cut hearts and a heart shaped hat pin.

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About Me

My life isn’t perfect, but if I squint at it in a certain light, I can make it seem so.....
I am a teacher in a further education college. I live with my partner and we have an 10 year old son. I also have a grown up daughter and two grandsons aged 12 and 6 I have fantastic friends and family. I know I am very , very lucky!